EUSEBIUS OF EMESA: Bishop of Emesa;
d. about 360. He came of a noble family of Edessa.
Having received his first instruction at Edessa, he

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went to Palestine, where Eusebius of Caesarea and
Patrophilus of Scythopolis became his teachers.
But he soon turned from their allegorical
elucidation of Scripture to the exegetical principles of the
school of Antioch. From Antioch he went to
Alexandria, where he sought to provide the
philosophical foundation for his knowledge. He
returned to Antioch prior to 340, having already won
such a name for himself as exegete and orator that
in 341 the Synod of Antioch designated him
successor to the deposed Athanasius. Eusebius,
however, shrank from the difficulties of this position,
and he was made bishop of the small city of Emesa
in Phenicia, where be spent the rest of his life. At
first the Emesans took offense at his extensive
learning, which embraced magic and astrology, and
for a short time he was compelled to flee to
Laodicea. His biography was written by his friend
George of Laodicea. Only a brief extract from
this work has been preserved (Socrates, Hist. eccl.,
ii. 9; Sozomen, Hist. eccl., iii. 6).

Jerome (De vir. ill., xci.) mentions writings of
Eusebius against Jews, pagans, and Novatians,
besides ten books of commentaries on the Epistle
to the Galatians and homilies on the Gospels.
Theodoret (Haer., I., xxv. 26) mentions polemical
works against Marcionites and Manicheans; and
Philoxenus of Mabug (Assemani, Bibliotheca
Orientalis, ii. 28) certain discourses and a work on faith,
which is possibly the source of the dogmatic
fragments preserved in Theodoret's Eranistes (Dial.,
iii.). Further, some exegetical fragments survive
in catenae (MPG, lxxxvi. 1, pp. 545-562), and a
fragment from a Lenten sermon (W. Wright,
Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the British
Museum, ii. 837, London, 1871. Thilo (Ueber die
Schriften des Eusebius von Alexandrien und des
Eusebius von Emisa, Halle, 1832, pp. 64, 79),
showed that the first two Latin homilies of those
published by Sirmond (Opuscula XIV. Eusebii
Pamphili, Paris, 1643) under the name of Eusebius
of Caesarea, directed against Marcellus of Ancyra,
are probably by Eusebius of Emesa. On the other
hand, the Latin homilies attributed to Eusebius
by Gagnaius (Paris, 1547) and Fremy in 1554 (cf.
Bibliotheca maxima patrum, 28 vols., Lyons,
1677-1707, vol. vi. 618-622) are works of Western
(Gallican) authors.

Meager as the extant fragments of Eusebius are,
they attest him to be a writer of no mean ability,
and Jerome (l.c.) depreciates him unjustly. He
was one of the most influential leaders of the great
theologians of Antioch, not only in his manner of
exposition, but also in his Christology. He was
averse to dogmatic disputations, and saw in verbal
strife the main reason for ecclesiastical ruptures.
In his tendency to maintain the older
incompleteness of dogma against the progress of doctrinal
definition he felt himself allied with semi-Arianism
whose leaders included most of his friends and
teachers.

EUSEBIUS OF LAODICEA: Bishop of
Laodicea in Syria in the third century; d. there before
268. He was originally a deacon in Alexandria,
where he distinguished himself during the Valerian
persecution by his piety, his care for the captives,
and his burial of the dead. A few years later in
the Roman siege of Brucchium, a quarter of
Alexandria, he and Anatolius secured permission for all
non-combatants to withdraw under safe-conduct,
and shortly afterward (263?) both went to Syria to
take part in the controversy involving Paul of
Samosata, bishop of Antioch. There he was
appointed bishop of Laodicea, succeeding Socrates,
but died before the synod which finally condemned
Paul, which was held in 268 (?). Jerome's
Chronicle, however, states that Eusebius was famous as
a teacher about 274, and that he was succeeded by
Anatolius in 279.